ON JOHN DOERR'S CLARION CRY AT TED 2007

The statement that made the biggest impression on me, for obvious reasons, is that "Going Green is going to be a bigger economic opportunity than the Internet". I'm paraphrasing a bit there, but that's the passionate gist of what John was communicating.

Don't get me wrong, his 18 minute, heart-felt presentation was not just about why "greed is good" while going green. There were a number of "not-for-profit" policy and governmental initiatives he touched on that potentially move things in a positive direction.

But ultimately, the longer term solution to the ecological issues facing all 6.5 billion of us today, (soon to be 9 billion by the end of this new century), is going to be based in marketplace decisions.

Ultimately, free markets will best help us figure out the right solutions to employ, the right technologies to develop and/or back, the right policies to embrace, both at the institutional and individual level.

It's only going to work if we can figure out win-win market-place based solutions for all the countries on the planet, not just unilateral actions by institutions and individuals in the "developed world" countries.

Unlike John, I am a total novice when it comes to environmental and "green" issues. I'm still trying to figure out how to understand all the arguments, counter-arguments, statistics, and counter-statistics, issues, and counter-issues.

So, my instinctive, initial reaction on this very important of important issues, is to make sure we keep a fair balance between market-place and mandated policy based solutions. And make sure we're as inclusive as possible in the debate and discussion on the right solutions to employ.

It's also important in my view that we not ask "developing countries" to curb their economic growth for our previous and current "ecological sins". Not to mention our ecological guilt, felt both institutionally and individually.

The almost over-whelming challenge is how we make the world ecologically sound for all 6.5 billion of us, while making sure that the OTHER 4.5 billion less fortunate of us are encouraged to become as economically sound as the other 2 billion.

We need to listen to alternative voices as well, like those of controversial folks like Bjorn Lomborg (his much debated book included).

Coming back to John Doerr's presentation, I agree that technologies both new and old, will have a huge role to play in figuring out the market place solutions. We can barely imagine how cool some of these technologies will end up being.